I’d wager the title of this article is enough to trigger most of us. If so, it demonstrates just how bad things have become in this regard. We need to grow up.
Regardless of whether you believe that there’s a multifaceted PC/woke agenda in play out in the world, hell-bent on destroying society’s framework, family dynamics, undermining natural, humane behavior, and perverting academia, entertainment, politics, science, medicine, commerce and industry, what it comes down to is a very personal, individual issue and responsibility.
Much like our health is entirely a personal, individual concern, the dominant narrative is leading us toward socialist groupthink, the “we’re in this together” nonsense that has the majority of the population wearing face coverings for no logical, rational, medical nor scientific reason. But I digress…
For countless generations, we’ve had a rather compromised, corrupted notion of manhood and masculinity. This manifested as the weak-minded bully, the fat, entitled tyrant, the crying-is-for-pussies beefcakes, the domineering chauvinist, the oppressive, misogynistic asshole version of men; the worst, lowest-rung aspects of masculinity, entirely fear-based and founded on ancient patriarchal ignorance; the heavily abbreviated script handed down from an age-old priestly caste, power-hungry, women-fearing, religious zealots of millennia past. That’s quite a mouthful, and most of the general population are completely unaware of how far back and how far-reaching this abusive, oppressive game really goes.
Big lies take a really long time to unseat. They tend to reside in clever language, embedded in cultures and traditions, and are thus unwittingly proliferated widely as endemic, systemic indoctrination that endures; the suffering simply gets handed down, unchecked and unchallenged.
While there is an increasing movement of men reintegrating a balance of the feminine, facing ancestral traumas, acknowledging the guilt and shame of their fathers, and developing long-dormant aspects of wholeness, there is an alarming agenda at play that would rather chemically, psychologically, or physically castrate the male gender, euthanize them altogether, or blur them into a fictitious spectrum… Women, too. We can see obvious programming throughout the broad array of media assaulting our senses from every angle, as the “destroy the alpha male” sentiment proliferates. This only serves to create more chaos, more imbalance, more disparity between men and women, and further emotionally distresses our children.
Whatever we choose to suppress, when it is a natural aspect of a complete, healthy human, it will always and inevitably express itself, exploding unpredictably and uncontrollably somewhere else. It will manifest as chronic disease, cyclical emotional conflict, extreme behavior, distrust in ourselves and our society, fragmented psychology, and spiritual desperation.
We’ve been heavily, repeatedly, and violently disconnected from nature. We’re suffering dearly for it, and of course, so is the planet, our home. Mother Nature is no misnomer. Big Mamma is always here, waiting, hearing, holding and creating a space of love. It’s available to us, all the time. We must reconnect and realign.
To me, being a real man is more than simply pursuing the challenges of deep, rigorous psychospiritual development. It’s more than baring your soul. It’s more than taking care of your health, wealth, and happiness. There’s a resilience that must be engendered and fostered that goes beyond the measurable and tangible. Like anything else of significance, it is the integration and cross-pollination of all the essential aspects listed herein.
To honor and to master manhood, is to honor and to master and to respect fully that which is womanhood. To integrate masculinity is to integrate and appreciate and elevate femininity. For too long, we’ve simplified these concerns into discussions of genitals and hormones, breasts and behinds, attitudes and responsibilities. We’ve clouded our inherent humanity with extremes of separation and polarity; the “Mars vs Venus”, pink vs blue, ovaries vs testicles fiction.
Competition and comparison has its place. But if we are ever to address our communal and greater collective concerns, to heal and adapt holistically our remarkable species in this now generation, we will need to own up to the ugliness we’d rather defer, rename, project or ignore.
Yes, there are differences. Yes, it requires us all to move forward.
Solvitur ambulando